Free for All | Page 4

sinking so low that it had to

resort to laughable strategies. It was as if General Motors were to tell the world "We
shouldn't have to worry about fixing cars that pollute because a collective of hippies in
Ithaca, New York, is refurbishing old bicycles and giving them away for free." It was as
if Exxon waved away the problems of sinking oil tankers by explaining that folksingers
had written a really neat ballad for teaching birds and otters to lick themselves clean after
an oil spill. If no one charged money for Linux, then it was probably because it wasn't
worth buying.
But as everyone began looking a bit deeper, they began to see that Linux was being taken
seriously in some parts of the world. Many web servers, it turned out, were already
running on Linux or another free cousin known as FreeBSD. A free webserving tool
known as Apache had controlled more than 50 percent of the web servers for some time,
and it was gradually beating out Microsoft products that cost thousands of dollars. Many
of the web servers ran Apache on top of a Linux or a FreeBSD machine and got the job
done. The software worked well, and the nonexistent price made it easy to choose.
Linux was also winning over some of the world's most serious physicists, weapons
designers, biologists, and hard-core scientists. Some of the nation's top labs had wired
together clusters of cheap PCs and turned them into supercomputers that were highly
competitive with the best machines on the market. One upstart company started offering
"supercomputers" for $3,000. These machines used Linux to keep the data flowing while
the racks of computers plugged and chugged their way for hours on complicated
simulations.
There were other indications. Linux users bragged that their system rarely crashed. Some
claimed to have machines that had been running for a year or more without a problem.
Microsoft (and Apple) users, on the other hand, had grown used to frequent crashes. The
"Blue Screen of Death" that appears on Windows users' monitors when something goes
irretrievably wrong is the butt of many jokes.
Linux users also bragged about the quality of their desktop interface. Most of the
uninitiated thought of Linux as a hacker's system built for nerds. Yet recently two very
good operating shells called GNOME and KDE had taken hold. Both offered the user an
environment that looked just like Windows but was better. Linux hackers started
bragging that they were able to equip their girlfriends, mothers, and friends with Linux
boxes without grief. Some people with little computer experience were adopting Linux
with little trouble.
Building websites and supercomputers is not an easy task, and it is often done in back
rooms out of the sight of most people. When people began realizing that the free software
hippies had slowly managed to take over a large chunk of the web server and
supercomputing world, they realized that perhaps Microsoft's claim was viable. Web
servers and supercomputers are machines built and run by serious folks with bosses who
want something in return for handing out paychecks. They aren't just toys sitting around
the garage.
If these free software guys had conquered such serious arenas, maybe they could handle

the office and the desktop. If the free software world had created something usable by the
programmers' mothers, then maybe they were viable competitors. Maybe Microsoft was
right.
3.1 SLEEPING IN ...............
While Microsoft focused its eyes and ears upon Washington, one of its biggest
competitors was sleeping late. When Richard Schmalensee was prepping to take the stand
in Washington, D.C., to defend Microsoft's outrageous fortune against the slings and
arrows of a government inquisition, Alan Cox was still sleeping in. He didn't get up until
2:00 PM. at his home in Swansea on the south coast of Wales. This isn't too odd for him.
His wife, Telsa, grouses frequently that it's impossible to get him moving each morning
without a dose of Jolt Cola, the kind that's overloaded with caffeine.
The night before, Cox and his wife went to see The Mask of Zorro, the latest movie that
describes how Don Diego de la Vega assumed the secret identity of Zorro to free the
Mexican people from the tyranny of Don Rafael Montero. In this version, Don Diego,
played by Anthony Hopkins, chooses an orphan, Alejandro Murrieta, played by Antonio
Banderas, and teaches him to be the next Zorro so the fight can continue. Its theme
resonates with writers of open source software: a small band of talented, passionate
warriors warding off the evil oppressor.
Cox keeps an open diary and posts the entries on the web. "It's a nice looking film, with
some great stunts and character play," he wrote, but
You could, however, have fitted the